<h6><strong>The Diplomat</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, announced yesterday that Spain will recognize Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela next Monday, "when the deadline expires" of eight days imposed by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to Nicolás Maduro to call for free and democratic presidential elections.</strong></h4> <strong> </strong> After the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers held in Bucharest, Borrell said that both Spain and the rest of the countries that launched the ultimatum to Maduro - Germany, France and the United Kingdom - will recognize Guaidó "on Monday". "<strong>The eight days, the president said it clearly. When the term designated by the president of the Government is fulfilled, naturally he and all the other countries that have done it will do it"</strong>, he added. <strong> </strong> On the other hand, <strong>the High Representative of Foreign Policy of the EU, Federica Mogherini</strong>, explained to the press, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs agreed yesterday in Bucharest to create an <strong>"international contact group"</strong> formed by the EU as a whole, several European countries (Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom) and several Latin American countries (Costa Rica, Ecuador, Uruguay and Bolivia). The function of this group will be to "create the necessary conditions" so that, within a maximum period of 90 days, elections can be called to "enabling Venezuelans to determine their own future". Once that period has elapsed, and in case the objectives are not reached, the group will be dissolved and the EU could approve moving economic sanctions against the Maduro regime. <h5><strong>The European Parliament recognizes Guaidó as "only legitimate president"</strong></h5> On the other hand, and as planned, the <strong>European Parliament</strong> yesterday approved, by a very large majority, a non-binding resolution that recognizes Juan Guaidó as the "only legitimate president" of Venezuela “in accordance with the Venezuelan Constitution, as stated in Article 233". The <strong><a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+TA+P8-TA-2019-0061+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN">resolution</a> </strong>also calls on Federica Mogherini and the member states to "adopt a strong, unified stance" and recognize the opposition leader as the <strong>"only legitimate interim president of the country until new free, transparent and credible presidential elections can be called in order to restore democracy”.</strong> In addition, it welcomes the fact that <strong>“many democratic states have already recognised the new interim presidency"</strong> and asks the EU member states to "act in this regard and accredit those representatives to be appointed by the legitimate authorities". The resolution - approved with 439 votes in favor, 104 against and 88 abstentions - <strong>rejects "any proposals or attempts to resolve the crisis that might entail the use of violence"</strong> and reiterates the full support to the National Assembly, which is the “only legitimate democratic body of Venezuela". In addition, it "strongly condemns the <strong>fierce repression and violence</strong>" in Venezuela, calls for an end to human rights violations and supports the call by the UN Secretary-General for an “independent and full investigation to be carried out into the perpetrated killings”. The text also calls on Mogherini to engage with the countries in the region and any other key actors with the aim of creating an <strong>international contact group</strong> to act as mediator <strong>"with a view to building an agreement on the calling of free, transparent and credible presidential elections based on an agreed calendar, equal conditions for all actors, transparency and international observation”.</strong> "I just informed Juan Guaidó that the European Parliament recognizes him as interim president of Venezuela. We are with you!”, declared the president of the Eurocámara, <strong>Antonio Tajani</strong>, on his Twitter account after the vote. <h5><strong>Detention and release of journalists</strong></h5> On the other hand, and at the request of the spokesman of the PP and first vice president of the European Popular Group, Esteban González Pons, the resolution includes a condemnation of <strong>the detention in Caracas of several journalists who were covering the events in Venezuela</strong>, including informants from the EFE Agency, the Colombians Maurén Barriga Vargas, Leonardo Muñoz and the Spaniard Gonzalo Domínguez Loeda. The three detainees were finally released yesterday and accredited, according to Borrell himself from Bucharest. The Spanish government also yesterday rejected "vigorously" the detention of journalists by members of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN). <h5><strong>Casado denounces the "lukewarmness" and Ledezma asks that Spain recognizes "today" Guaidó</strong></h5> Meanwhile, the internal Venezuelan conflict continues to permeate the internal political debate in Spain. The <strong>president of the Popular Party, Pablo Casado</strong>, lamented yesterday the "lukewarm" response of the Government of Pedro Sanchez, whom he accused of not having been "at the forefront" of the European position on Venezuela and of having "legitimized a dictator" with his decision to grant Maduro eight days to call elections before recognizing Guaidó as president. The leader of the PP made these statements during the presentation of the former Caracas Metropolitan <strong>Mayor Antonio Ledezma</strong> at an informative breakfast organized by Nueva Economía Fórum in Madrid, in the course of which the opposition leader described as "naive" the ultimatum presented by Spain, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands and called on the Spanish government to recognize Guaidó "today" to promote a "transition process". Ledezma also asked Spain to "intensify" the individual sanctions against the "looters" of his country and support the "incidents" that will be presented before the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Venezuelan "criminals", while urging the PP not to support the international contact group sponsored by the Mogherini with the support of Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands, because the initiatives of this type, he assured, are "oxygen bombs" for Maduro.
